Program Notes | Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra

Béla Bartók
Born: March 25, 1881 in Nagy Szent Miklós, Transylvania
Died: September 26, 1945 in New York City
Composed: 1915 for piano; orchestrated in 1917
World Premiere: February 11, 1918 in Budapest; Emil Lichtenberg conducted
Duration: 6 minutes
Instrumentation: two flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, and strings

While we revere Béla Bartók as one of the great compositional titans of the 20th century, his contribution as an ethnomusicologist was nearly as great. Beginning in 1904, he embarked upon a series of in-depth research projects in the remote mountain villages of Eastern Europe. He listened to folk songs and peasant dance tunes, notating them on music paper. In Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia he found an unimagined wealth of material preserved by meticulous oral tradition.

Romanian peasant music exerted a particular fascination for him after 1909. Collaborating with János Busitia, headmaster of the old Catholic Grammar School in Belényes, Bartók learned to speak and write Romanian, and collected some 3,500 examples of Romanian folk music. Inevitably this rich assemblage of material worked its way into his own compositions. He poured forth a series of important piano and vocal works in 1915, including the Sonatina on Romanian Folk Melodies, the Suite, Op. 14, (for piano), Romanian Christmas Carols, and the Romanian Folk Dances we hear on this program.

These six Dances draw more on instrumental than vocal models, particularly rural fiddle tunes. Consequently, they have lent themselves readily to instrumental transcription. Recognizing this, Bartók transcribed the six pieces (originally for piano) for orchestra in 1917. They have since been arranged for many other instrumental combinations and are thus among the most familiar of Bartók's folk-derived music.

Bartók's music is an exuberant collection of miniatures, celebrating the vigorous rhythms and haunting modal harmonies of eastern Europe. Augmented seconds and violin harmonics in the “Sash Dance” lend it a dreamy quality. Minuet rhythm provides unexpected western grace to the “Pipehorn Dance” and metric shifts between triple and duple time hold our attention in the fifth dance, a “Romanian Polka.” The set concludes with an energetic, dizzying “Quick Dance.”

Frédéric Chopin
Born: March 1, 1810 in Żelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, Poland
Died: October 17, 1849 in Paris, France
Composed: 1829–30
World Premiere: March 17, 1830 in Warsaw; the composer was the soloist
Duration: 32 minutes
Instrumentation: woodwinds, horns and trumpets in pairs, bass trombone, timpani, solo piano, and strings

Some composers undergo marked changes in their style and approach to their art in the course of a long career: Beethoven and Stravinsky are obvious examples. Others, like Brahms, seem to have burst forth fully formed, with a unique and personal musical language that is instantly identifiable as their own and remains consistent in early, middle, and late works.

Frédéric Chopin falls into the latter category. Hallmarks of his style appear in all his compositions. We are exceedingly unlikely to mistake Chopin's music for that of any of his contemporaries. His two piano concertos are the finest of his so-called "apprentice" works—both demonstrate his incomparable flair for solo display.

Chopin began work on the F minor concerto in autumn 1829. It was actually his first concerto, but was not published until 1836, three years after the publication of his Piano Concerto in E minor, Op.11. Consequently the F minor concerto bears a later opus number.

The relationship between orchestra and piano is different in Chopin from, for example, the conversational balance in a Mozart concerto. Chopin took Johann Nepomuk Hummel as his model, rather than Mozart. The F minor Concerto is more an accompanied solo than a concerted discussion. Everything is geared to highlight technical virtuosity, beautiful tone, and the expressive capability of the pianist. The mood of the music changes rapidly, showing every face that the composer has, from warrior to poet. But these transformations are never at the expense of continuity, and Chopin sustains a convincing forward drive in spite of his unconventional approach to sonata form. As Peter Gould observed:

“The development section of the F minor concerto is not a true development as understood by Beethoven. Chopin seldom argued. He was not naturally an intellectual, his greatest attribute being that of sensitivity, and in his development, he wrote what could be better described as a commentary on what had gone before.”

Chopin had a lifelong love of opera that exercised a powerful influence on his sense of melodic line and inimitable ornamentation. That influence is most readily perceived in his lyrical slow movements. The F minor concerto's central Andante (originally Adagio) was an expression of Chopin's love for a singer, Konstancja Gładkowska, during the last year he spent in Warsaw. He wrote to his friend Titus Woyciechowski in October 1829:

“To my misfortune, perhaps, I have found my ideal. I venerate her with all my soul. For six months now I have been dreaming of her every night and still I have not addressed a single word to her. It is thinking of her that I have composed the Adagio of my Concerto.”

Chopin remained very fond of performing this slow movement long after other women (notably Countess Delphine Potocka of Paris, the eventual dedicatee of the concerto) had replaced Konstancja in his affections. It is easy to understand why. With its lavish ornamentation and delicate embroidery, this movement blurs the distinction between melody and decoration, weaving a magical seductive spell.

Polish nationalism finds its way into the finale as a mazurka. This colorful movement incorporates a number of unexpectedly deft orchestral touches, such as col legno strings (striking the strings with the wood of the bow, rather than the horsehair) and a horn signal, that contribute to its energy. A virtuoso coda reminds us that the concerto, ultimately, belongs to the soloist.

Béla Bartók
Born: March 25, 1881 in Nagy Szent Miklós, Transylvania
Died: September 26, 1945 in New York City
Composed: in 1942 and 1943; revised in 1945
World Premiere: February 11, 1918 in Budapest; Emil Lichtenberg conducted
Duration: 36 minutes
Instrumentation: three flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), three oboes (3rd doubling English horn), three clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet), three bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, two harps, timpani, side drum, bass drum, tam-tam, cymbals, triangle, and strings

Bartók's 1943 Concerto for Orchestra is not a traditional concerto featuring one soloist. Rather, it celebrates the entire symphonic ensemble, allowing virtually every instrument its moment in the spotlight. This Concerto became the quintessential orchestral showpiece of the 20th century and remains a work with which symphony orchestras cut their teeth and prove their mettle. It is both the symphony that Bartók never composed and the ultimate concerto grosso for our time. In addition, the Concerto for Orchestra, like many of Bartók's late works, is written in a more diatonic, accessible language than his earlier music. Its roots lie in the peasant folk music of Hungary.

Foreign expatriate in a strange country
Early in 1940, unable to accept the political situation in his native Hungary and throughout war-torn Europe, Bartók emigrated to America. He found the strangeness of this foreign land daunting. His English was not strong. The noise of New York City, where he initially settled, proved irksome and disturbing. Plagued by exhaustion, overwork, and emotional stress, his health worsened. So did his financial situation. By spring 1942, he was quite ill with the leukemia that would claim his life three years later.

A welcome commission
Given such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Bartók expressed doubt to friends as to whether he would compose again. Even when his physical energy failed, he remained a vastly imaginative and energetic musician in spirit. The conductor Serge Koussevitzky visited him in May 1943 and requested a new piece for the Boston Symphony. Bartók threw himself into the new commission, which took shape rapidly that summer.

Perhaps because it was his first large composition in a while, ideas poured out of him. Knowing that Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony would play the first performance, he was inspired to write with superb orchestral players in mind, The Concerto's five movements distinguish it from a traditional four movement symphony, although there are some clear parallels in the overall structure. The five-movement organization is one that Bartók adopted frequently in his mature works. Generally, in such compositions, a weightier central (third) movement serves as a fulcrum to balancing outer movements, with the second and fourth somehow connected, and the first and last bearing some relationship to one another, as well as forming a frame for the whole. Music theorists call this method of formal organization an “arch form,” and the structure has become strongly associated with Bartók.

Noah’s Ark
Bartók's Concerto is filled with wondrous and exciting musical moments. A few warrant singling out, especially for live performance. The second movement, "Game of the Pairs” (“Giuoco delle coppie”), introduces the winds two by two, as if they were marching onto Noah's Ark. Emphasizing the difference in their respective timbres, he writes for the bassoons in parallel sixths, the oboes in thirds, the clarinets in sevenths, flutes in fifths, and muted trumpets in major seconds; after an intervening brass chorale, the restatement expands to triple woodwind. In each case, the melody is idiomatic to the character of the instrument, as if to express its personality. The movement is like a microcosmic guide to the orchestra. The side drum opens and concludes this remarkable “game,” ushering the parade of duets.

Sarcastic swipe at Shostakovich
Careful listeners may recognize that the musical material in the central “Elegia” grows out of the slow introduction to the first movement. In “Intermezzo interrotto,” the interruption consists of a vulgar quotation from Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony. Bartók found the Russian composer's theme absurd, and his ridicule of it in this movement is one of music's more raucous snipes at another composer. Bartók closes his Concerto with an energetic opening fanfare, including an elaborate fugue as the centerpiece of the brilliant finale.

CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA

The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music defines a concerto thus:

“Since the late 18th century, a composition for orchestra and a solo instrument … an essential feature of such works is the contrast between passages dominated by the soloist (usually requiring some display of virtuosity) and passages (called tutti) for the orchestra alone.”

What then, is a concerto for orchestra, if not a contradiction in terms, since there is no soloist? Later in the same entry, the dictionary elaborates:

“Some 20th-century composers (Hindemith, Piston, Bartók, Barber, and others) have written pieces under titles like concerto for orchestra. These often draw on elements of the baroque concerto, including the use of a group of soloists.”

In the case of Bartók's 1943 Concerto for Orchestra, the group of soloists amounts to the entire ensemble. The result is a celebration of that giant composite instrument, the orchestra.

Bartók was not the only important 20th-century composer to explore the capabilities of the large symphonic ensemble through this new genre. In addition to those listed in the dictionary article quoted above, other composers of significant Concertos for Orchestra included Witold Lutosławski, Roger Sessions, Elliott Carter, and Rodion Shchedrin. More recently, many prominent Americans have turned their hands to it, including Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon, Christopher Rouse, Steven Stucky (whose Second Concerto for Orchestra won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005), Joan Tower, and Jennifer Higdon. The genre has evolved into a significant alternative to the traditional multi-movement symphony as a vessel for musical ideas.

German conductor Ruth Reinhardt is building a reputation for her keen musical intelligence, programmatic imagination, and elegant performances.

The 2025–26 season marks the beginning of Reinhardt’s term as Music Director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, leading seven programs across the season. In the summer of 2025, she made debuts with the Seoul Philharmonic and the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra. Other significant debuts in 2025–26 include the Staatskapelle Dresden, Philharmonia Orchestra in London, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Bruckner Orchester Linz, SWR Symphonieorchester, the Folkwang Kammerorchester in Essen, the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen in Switzerland, and New Jersey Symphony. She also has return engagements with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Naples Philharmonic, and the Orlando Philharmonic.

Programmatically, Reinhardt’s interests have led her toward contemporary repertoire, with significant emphasis on women composers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Her programs often introduce new names and fresh faces to many orchestras, including Grażyna Bacewicz, Kaija Saariaho, and Dai Fujikura, and pairs them with stylistically contrasting or complementary pieces, whether core masterworks by Brahms, Rachmaninoff, or Dvořák, or with “classic moderns” such as works by Bartók, Stravinsky, Lutosławski, Martinů, and Hindemith. Ruth is a frequent collaborator of many of today’s foremost instrumentalists spanning several generations. Among them are pianists Emanuel Ax, Daniil Trifonov, and Eva Gevorgyan; violinists Augustin Hadelich and Vadim Gluzman; cellists Andrei Ioniță and Jean-Guihen Queyras; horn player Stefan Dohr; and saxophonist Steven Banks.

In past seasons, Reinhardt has appeared with many of the major North American Orchestras and as recently as last season has made debuts with the St. Louis and Charlotte Symphony Orchestras. Previously, she has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra (on four occasions), National Symphony Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Detroit, Houston, Seattle, and Baltimore. In Europe, she has appeared with Hague Residentie Orkestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in Amsterdam, Orchestre National de France, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, RSO Berlin, Stockholm Philharmonic, and Tonkünstler Orchestra Wien.

Ruth Reinhardt served as Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony for the final two seasons of Jaap van Zweden’s tenure as Music Director (2018-2020). She received her master’s degree in Conducting from the Juilliard School of Music in New York in 2017. She was a Dudamel Fellow of the LA Phil (2017-2018), conducting fellow at both the Seattle Symphony (2015-2016) and Tanglewood Music Center (2015), and Taki Concordia associate conducting fellow (2015-2017). She currently makes her home in Switzerland.

Yamaha Young Artist, Eva Gevorgyan, is a laureate in more than forty piano competitions, including top prizes at the 2018 Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists and the 2019 Van Cliburn Young Artist Competition. More recently she has won the Prix du Bern in Switzerland in 2023, Discovery Award at the 2019 International Classical Music Awards, the Great Prize at the Russian National Orchestra Competition in 2021, in addition to being finalist and winner of the Special Prize at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland.

She has performed as soloist with the Dallas Symphony, Lucerne Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica de Bologna, Mariinsky Orchestra, National Philharmonic of Russia, Russian National Orchestra, Evgeny Svetlanov Academic State Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Leipzig Symphony, Mexico National Symphony, Armenia National Philharmonic, Gavle Symphony, Kristiansand Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Malta Philharmonic, and with the Novaya Opera Orchestra, where she debuted as a soloist/conductor performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Eva is also frequently invited to international festivals, such as Verbier, Festival Internacional Cervantino, White Nights Festival, Brescia and Bergamo Piano Festival, Bach Montreal Festival, and La Roque d’Antheron. In July 2024, Eva made her highly anticipated recital debut at Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

Eva’s 2025–26 season features an exciting array of debut and return appearances with leading orchestras and venues worldwide. She makes her debut with the Göttinger Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, and Auckland Symphony. She also returns to the Belgrade Symphony and Stuttgart Philharmonic. Her recital schedule includes performances in Bad Kissingen, Bielefeld, Münster, Oporto's Casa da Música, Berlin Konzerthaus, De Singel (Antwerp), Amare Master Pianist Series (The Hague), Fundación Scherzo (Madrid), and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. Eva will perform with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields at the Tonhalle Zürich and with the Armenian National Philharmonic at the Brescia and Bergamo Festival. She also joins the Chamber Orchestra of Europe for concerts at the Esterházy Palace and a tour across Italy. In the chamber music sphere, she will collaborate with Alexandra Conunova and the Timișoara Philharmonic, and will perform with Pablo Ferrández, Yamen Saadi, and Sara Ferrández in upcoming concerts at Barcelona’s L’Auditori and with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo.

Eva pursues studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory’s Central School of Music in Moscow with Natalia Trull and at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, under the guidance of Stanislav Ioudenitch. She has also been granted the prestigious scholarship at the 2020 Klavier-Festival Ruhr by Evgeny Kissin.

Her first CD on the Melodiya label, featuring works by Chopin and Scriabin, was released in 2022, and received great acclaim.